This is a repository for all cool scientific discussion and fascination. Scientific facts, theories, and overall cool scientific stuff that you'd like to share with others. Stuff that makes you smile and wonder at the amazing shit going on around us, that most people don't notice.

Anything that can bring more people outside to look at the night sky is good. People need to learn how to dream about the future again.

I grew up in the shadow of history, about 50 miles from Cape Canaveral, during the birth of the space program. I hung on every launch, every tiny step we took, as we clawed our way up and out of the cosmic gravity well that was the planet of our origin.

The day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin guided their spindly little craft down to the surface of the moon, I was overwhelmed with an emotion that to this day I still can't name. I was positive that it wouldn't be but another 10 or 20 years before I would go through the same feelings of awe and wonderment when another astronaut left another set of footprints on the surface of Mars.

I didn't realize at that time we would begin to turn our back on the universe to dwell on the fantasy of having utopia on earth before we could spend money on the ancient urge to explore. Fifty years and trillions of dollars later, we have the same percentage of poor as when we started, and our space program has learned to settle for playing in the same stagnant bathwater known as low earth orbit for decades.

And in those same decades I came to the realization that those first steps on the lunar surface that had left me so breathless was not man clawing his way up from his origins - it was man clawing his way back to them...

I grew up in the shadow of history, about 50 miles from Cape Canaveral, during the birth of the space program. I hung on every launch, every tiny step we took, as we clawed our way up and out of the cosmic gravity well that was the planet of our origin.

The day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin guided their spindly little craft down to the surface of the moon, I was overwhelmed with an emotion that to this day I still can't name. I was positive that it wouldn't be but another 10 or 20 years before I would go through the same feelings of awe and wonderment when another astronaut left another set of footprints on the surface of Mars.

I didn't realize at that time we would begin to turn our back on the universe to dwell on the fantasy of having utopia on earth before we could spend money on the ancient urge to explore. Fifty years and trillions of dollars later, we have the same percentage of poor as when we started, and our space program has learned to settle for playing in the same stagnant bathwater known as low earth orbit for decades.

And in those same decades I came to the realization that those first steps on the lunar surface that had left me so breathless was not man clawing his way up from his origins - it was man clawing his way back to them...

I'm glad there is at least one poster who feels the same about this topic...Hopefully, more than just you.

I am pretty passionate about manned space exploration even though many argue against it, and rail against it because of the cost. They simply don't realize what a small portion of the national budget it has actually comprised.

I'm glad there is at least one poster who feels the same about this topic...Hopefully, more than just you.

I am pretty passionate about manned space exploration even though many argue against it, and rail against it because of the cost. They simply don't realize what a small portion of the national budget it has actually comprised.

Is there a magic equation to the universe? A series of numbers capable of unraveling the most complicated organic properties or deciphering the plot of "Lost"? Probably not. But thanks to one medieval man's obsession with rabbits, we have a sequence of numbers that reflect various patterns found in nature.
In 1202, Italian mathematician Leonardo Pisano (also known as Fibonacci, meaning "son of Bonacci") pondered the question: Given optimal conditions, how many pairs of rabbits can be produced from a single pair of rabbits in one year? This thought experiment dictates that the female rabbits always give birth to pairs, and each pair consists of one male and one female.

Think about it -- two newborn rabbits are placed in a fenced-in yard and left to, well, breed like rabbits. Rabbits can't reproduce until they a*re at least one month old, so for the first month, only one pair remains. At the end of the second month, the female gives birth, leaving two pairs of rabbits. When month three rolls around, the original pair of rabbits produce yet another pair of newborns while their earlier offspring grow to adulthood. This leaves three pairs of rabbit, two of which will give birth to two more pairs the following month.

The order goes as follows: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and on to infinity. Each number is the sum of the previous two. This series of numbers is known as the Fibonacci numbers or the Fibonacci sequence. The ratio between the numbers (1.618034) is frequently called the golden ratio or golden number.
At first glance, Fibonacci's experiment might seem to offer little beyond the world of speculative rabbit breeding. But the sequence frequently appears in the natural world -- a fact that has intrigued scientists for centuries.
Want to see how these fascinating numbers are expressed in nature? No need to visit your local pet store; all you have to do is look around you.

You won't find Fibonacci numbers everywhere in the natural world -- many plants and animals express different number sequences. And just because a series of numbers can be applied to an object, that doesn't necessarily imply there's any correlation between figures and reality. As with numerological superstitions such as famous people dying in sets of three, sometimes a coincidence is just a coincidence.

But, Fibonacci numbers appear in nature often enough to prove that they reflect some naturally occurring patterns. You can commonly spot these by studying the manner in which various plants grow. Here are a few examples:

Seed heads, pinecones, fruits and vegetables: Look at the array of seeds in the center of a sunflower and you'll notice what looks like spiral patterns curving left and right. Amazingly, if you count these spirals, your total will be a Fibonacci number. Divide the spirals into those pointed left and right and you'll get two consecutive Fibonacci numbers. You can decipher spiral patterns in pinecones, pineapples and cauliflower that also reflect the Fibonacci sequence in this manner. *

Flowers and branches: Some plants express the Fibonacci sequence in their growth points, the places where tree branches form or split. One trunk grows until it produces a branch, resulting in two growth points. The main trunk then produces another branch, resulting in three growth points. Then the trunk and the first branch produce two more growth points, bringing the total to five. This pattern continues, following the Fibonacci numbers. Additionally, if you count the number of petals on a flower, you'll often find the total to be one of the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. For example, lilies and irises have three petals, buttercups and wild roses have five, delphiniums have eight petals and so on.

Honeybees: A honeybee colony consists of a queen, a few drones and lots of workers. The female bees (queens and workers) all have two parents, a drone and a queen. Drones, on the other hand, hatch from unfertilized eggs. This means they have only one parent. Therefore, Fibonacci numbers express a drone's family tree in that he has one parent, two grandparents, three great-grandparents and so forth.

The human body: Take a good look at yourself in the mirror. You'll notice that most of your body parts follow the numbers one, two, three and five. You have one nose, two eyes, three segments to each limb and five fingers on each hand. The proportions and measurements of the human body can also be divided up in terms of the golden ratio. DNA molecules follow this sequence, measuring 34 angstroms long and 21 angstroms wide for each full cycle of the double helix [source: Jovonovic].

Why do so many natural patterns reflect the Fibonacci sequence? Scientists have pondered the question for centuries. In some cases, the correlation may just be coincidence. In other situations, the ratio exists because that particular growth pattern evolved as the most effective. In plants, this may mean maximum exposure for light-hungry leaves or maximum seed arrangement.

If we don't expand from a single planet, eventually we will die out. If we colonize a planet outside of our solar system, we will live forever as a species.

Self evident one would think.

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